


Q&A

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Discord Prompts [11]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 16:29:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19232833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: Captain Adam Reid III is given a glimpse of a pivotal moment in Arda’s history and is given a choice.





	Q&A

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place some time during TNG’s run (2366-2370)
> 
> Part of the Tolkien Writers’ Discord Prompt.

“I don’t have time for this.”

 

The being in the guise of a Starfleet officer looked at Captain Adam Reid with scrutiny; as if he were sizing him up as a commodity. 

“Funny turn of phrase,” he sniffed, and looked back down upon the planet which they overlooked.

Adam Reid III never thought in his life he would ever see the island intact.But there it was, with clouds swirling above it, and the intact coastline of Beleriand as well. 

 

But it was what was swirling around them was what the trickster being wanted to show him.Gigantic starships greenish-gold tinged, hung in orbit above the land that would be known by the Federation as Anor II.Opposed were biomechanical nighmares, with organ-pipe designs along both sides of the vessels. 

 

And what came between them were familiar to Adam indeed.

 

On one side were multitudes—flocks, if you will—of Silverhawk armors freely flying in orbit, to meet the similarly armed troops in their own Darkbird armors. 

 

“This is what you wax rhapsodic over, isn’t it?” the being known as Q said to Adam.“Good vs. Evil in really cool outfits?But look.”

As Adam looked, he could see something approach the planet.Dark, and almost featureless, it began to glow as it entered the higher atmosphere of Arda. 

“My god,” Adam breathed.“Is that what caused the Cataclysm?”

“Not in and of itself,” Q sighed, “But it was the tip of the spear.He really thought he was clever.Never stopped talking about it.”

“But we never figured out why everything…stopped,” Adam puzzled.“Why the society never got past it, and never started over.It stayed at a pre-industrial state for most of the continent for all of the Third Age, and no one still knows why.”

“You know,” Q said.“The best way to figure out why something happened…is to make sure it never happened.”

Adam frowned at Q.“I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works at all,” he retorted.“And what are you going on about, anyway?”

“I’m just saying,” Q said, “That if you wanted to undo the Cataclysm that’s causing you such primate-level confusion, now would be a good time.”

“You want to stop the Cataclysm,” Adam said, astonished.“Change history.”

“I’d be as curious as the next cosmic being what would happen,” Q suggested.“Just say the word.”

 

Adam thought for a moment. 

 

And then he laughed.

 

“That is some grade-A level temptation, there,” he said.“But no.”

Q shrugged.“Whatever.But why not?”

“These events shaped everything that happened after,” Adam reasoned.“Without knowing what would happen in the Galaxy with a Numenorean Empire still intact in the intervening millennia, I would be a fool to just change things.They never made it very far into the Alpha Quadrant.What if they would have?What if they conquered Earth?Vulcan?What if their wars spilled to the Klingons or Romulans?I’m sure you wouldn’t mind, but that’s way too much chaos to consider for me.”

 

“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Q groused.“I can see why he chose you.”

“Who chose me, for what?” Adam demanded.

“Never mind.”Q sighed.“A deal’s a deal.One trip and it’s back in your little shuttle to your little conference.”With that, Q snapped his fingers and the two were back in Adam’s shuttle en route to Pacifica for Adam’s conference. 

“There you go.Right where you started from.See, your rakajino’s still warm and everything.”He indicated the flagon of coffee next to the shuttle controls.“Careful, though.These ships seem to short circuit at the drop of a hat.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”Adam turned back to Q and asked.“But weren’t you there anyway?In the First and Second Ages?with the Valar and Maiar and all that? 

“Just because I can do anything and go anywhere, doesn’t mean there aren’t rules,” Q chided Adam.“And the Q continuum hadn’t evolved to the state it had achieved by ticking off the neighbors.And with that, he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a bright flash, but not before adding,

 

“And you’d be best to remember that in the times to come."


End file.
